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Lowell man eyes new trial in 1971 murder

The Lowell Sun

Updated:
04/27/2013 06:36:07 AM EDT

Sun Staff Report

Lawyers for the Lowell man who has been imprisoned for 40 years for a murder he refused to admit to committing -- and could have been freed on parole if he did so -- say new DNA test results will cast doubt on their client's conviction, according to The Boston Globe.

Robert Breest, now 75, was sentenced to life in prison for the 1971 murder of Susan Randall, 18, of Manchester, N.H.

Breest's lawyers filed a motion Friday seeking a new trial. The attorneys told the Globe the new test results, produced with more recent DNA technology, show that Randall was in a "violent struggle with at least two men before she died." Prosecutors have said Randall was killed by a lone murderer.

Randall fought back and clawed at her attacker, and prosecutors argued at Breest's trial that blood found under her fingernails matched Breest's blood type. DNA evidence was not available at the time.

The state's top witness is a jailhouse informant who testified Breest confessed to him and said he acted alone.

Breest has relentlessly filed petitions seeking to throw out his conviction.

In 2008, DNA tests further implicated Breest.

Randall was beaten and choked to death Feb. 28, 1971. Her body was found several days later in the Merrimack River in Concord. Breest was offered parole in 1996 on the condition he confess his guilt, but he refused, maintaining his innocence.

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